Southeast

Giants 101 provides 24/7 obsessive sports coverage of the New York Giants as a part of Sports Media 101. For news,
op/ed, game reviews, team updates and even rumors you will find all of it on Giants 101. Have an opinion - join
the discussion and drop a comment. If it's about the Giants, it's on Giants 101.

A once daily email with the top 5 most important stories from around Sports
Media 101.

Email

News Archives

New Turf Installed at MetLife Stadium with Super Bowl XLVIII in Mind

July 3rd, 2013 at 6:30 AM By Doug Rush

The home of the New York Giants and New York Jets is all of three years old, yet renovations had to take place during the offseason as the stadium is set to host its first ever Super Bowl in February of 2014.

Super Bowl XLVIII will be the first time in history the event will be played in winter-like conditions at an outdoor stadium. Normally, when the Super Bowl is played at a cold weather place like New Orleans or Atlanta, it is played in a dome (Super Dome, Georgia Dome). Otherwise, the event is played at an outdoor stadium with warm weather like Miami and Tampa Bay.

The NFL wasn't the first sport to hold a major event in an outdoor stadium; the National Hockey League experimented with an outdoor game which is played around New Years Day, dating all the way back to 2008. That game, now known as the NHL Winter Classic, has been played at Ralph Wilson Stadium in 2008, home of the Buffalo Bills, and at Heinz Field in 2010, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Both games were played in winter conditions when normally, the sport is played indoors.

With the possibility of the biggest football game of the season being played in winter-like conditions on February 2nd, MetLife Stadium is taking all of the proper precautions to make sure the fourth-season stadium is in excellent condition. The Giants will look to become the first team in NFL history to ever host the Super Bowl in their own stadium.

This is another “care” issue. As in do the owners actually “care” about the type of field conditions on which their “investments” perform. I would think that by now enough studies have been done pertaining to joint injury and playing surface that the NFL and owners understand what type of turf should and should not be installed.

In addition they must understand that being tackled on a football field should not be the equivalent of being tackled on concrete.

And by the way, thanks NFL for taking my advice and training kids in the proper technique in tackling and blocking. You will improve your game because kids will understand the difference between tackling and launching with intent to injure. Which is way different than launching to make a shoe string tackle or to grab a QB attempting to scamper away from you. Or even leaving your feet (launching) to dive over a pile of players in order to make a play on a ball carrier. That’s called “PLAYING FOOTBALL” with athleticism not launching.

This training will filter (and hopefully be NFL sponsored) from Pop Warner, to high school to college to the professional ranks. It will save lives, prevent serious injury (in most cases) and most of all this will hopefully allow the NFL to stop legislating the fractional timing involved in hitting/tackling. This just might save the NFL from becoming a flag football league.

This sport will NEVER be injury free. Its very nature dictates that. But the “non application” of common sense (which is anything but common) and understanding what actually goes on in the game will save the NFL.